


The New Kid

by anonymousAlchemist



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Gen, in which angus has too many parents and makes a friend, let angus make friends his own age!!!, smart kids are still kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 12:57:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11829225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anonymousAlchemist/pseuds/anonymousAlchemist
Summary: Or, after the end of the world, there's a house with too many bedrooms, a spaceship parked in their garage, and one boy detective who is everybody's son.Also, he's starting middle school.





	1. First Day

**Author's Note:**

> if you read this on tumblr - its pretty similar, although the first chapter might be new to you! (or the rest of the chapters might be new to you)  
> some people use postcanon au to cope.

"I've been to school before," Angus says reproachfully. "It's not like it's my first time."

"Yeah, but this is fantasy middle school," Magnus says, brandishing the camera like a weapon. "We're just excited for you, kiddo." 

"We never went to school," Lup says thoughtfully. She plucks the camera from Magnus's grasp. He pouts. Angus giggles. 

"Yeah, we were always on the road — who needs it! I don't see why we can't just homeschool him," Taako complains. "He's been doing fine getting tutored by me 'n Barry 'n Luce. I bet he's way ahead of everyone there."

"Probably, but he's gotta make some friends who aren't us. You know, kids his own age," Barry says. "Don't want him turning out like you two." 

"Babe!" Lup says indignantly. Barry laughs. "Sorry, hon." 

"Fuck off, Barold," Taako says. "We're perfect." 

"He's right, though," Lucretia says. "But there's something to be said for homeschooling..." 

Merle rolls his eyes. "Stop coddling the kid. Mavis loves school, he's gonna be fine. Kid helped save the world, if you don't remember." 

"Can you please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Angus asks plaintively. "I'm not a kid, I'm eleven years old." 

"Sorry, Agnes," Taako flicks Angus and Angus wrinkles his nose. "Hey, just say the word and we'll ditch this whole 'school' plan, a'ight, pumpkin?" 

"I've never been to middle school before," Angus says thoughtfully. "I think it might be interesting."

"That's the spirit," Lup says, and snaps a picture of Angus wearing his new backpack.   

"Wait, we gotta get one with all of us," Magnus says. "Where's Cap'nport?"

"Getting the car," Lup gestures to the garage behind the house. Angus's eyes widen. 

"You mean the spaceship? I can't go to school in a spaceship!" 

"Why not?" Magnus's brow furrows. "It'll be really fast." 

"The school's a ten minute walk away," Angus says. "I can just walk." 

"You su-ure?" Lup says. "You could go to school in a spaceship. That's pretty fuckin cool, right?"

"Please? I just want to look normal," Angus says. "I can't investigate anything if everyone is paying attention to me." 

Barry laughs. "You're a weird kid, you know that, Angus?" 

"Thank you? I think?" 

"It's a good thing," Barry assures him. "Alright, I''ll go grab Cap." He ambles away from the group and toward the garage. 

Taako sighs theatrically, and holds out a brown-bag lunch. "Well, if you're so set on this 'school' thing, there's no way you're eating that garbage that passes for cafeteria food. I packed your favorite, Ango, and if any of the kids want some of your chips, you know what to do."

Angus grins and nods, eyes sparkling behind his glasses. "Thank you, sir! I magic missile them, right?" 

"Yup," Lup and Taako say in chorus. 

"No!" Lucretia says. 

Angus laughs. "I'm just kidding, ma'am. I'm not gonna do that." 

Lucretia sighs. "Taako, if Agnus gets in any trouble, it's going to be you going to the parent-teacher conference." 

"Cool," Taako says. "I'll just make Lup do it." 

"Taako!" 

"What? You still owe me for leaving, Lulu." 

Lup groans, but doesn't deny it. Barry returns, with Davenport in tow. "Okay, picture time." Lup grins, and snaps her fingers. A red mage hand springs into existence and grabs the camera. "Alright! Everyone get in here!" 

There's a few minutes of finagling as people pose and change positions and Lup moves the camera around. Between Davenport and Magnus, there's a solid three feet of height difference, which makes for a difficult photography experience. Eventually, they find a configuration acceptable to everyone. Angus ends up being held up by Magnus, which is a little patronizing, but overall nice. 

"Say cheese!" 

"Cheese!" 

The camera flashes. Barry glances at his watch. 

"Shit, you're gonna be late, if you don't leave now." 

Angus immediately stops smiling, and starts wriggling his way out of Magnus's arms. "Oh no! Sir, please let me go!" Magnus releases him, and Angus bounds forward, before glancing back. 

"Bye! I love you!" Angus waves, and starts running down the street. "Love you too!" Magnus calls. The seven members of the Starblaster's crew watch the front door slam shut behind him. 

"...So we're following him to school, right?" Magnus turns to Lup. She nods decisively. 

"Oh yeah. He's eleven."

Merle rolls his eyes again. "The kid was taking a train alone last year, he can handle himself."


	2. Desks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The new kid's desk is next to mine.

The new kid's desk is next to mine, which is fine, I guess. But I sort of wish that I was sitting next to Dana — we always sat next to each other, because her last name is Manfred and mine is Min, and nobody else at our school had anything in between A and I. 

But the new kid is named Angus McDonald — that's a C, so he sits between me and Dana. He seems pretty okay. When we were all introducing ourselves (because Mrs. Sylvester who teaches homeroom and Language Arts made us do that whole deal), the new kid said, "Hi, my name is Angus McDonald, and I'm from, um, a lot of places, and I like Caleb Cleveland novels and magic and solving mysteries." 

He smiled, and clutched the book he was holding tighter to his chest, and I could tell he was a little nervous, probably. I felt sort of bad for him. I was the new kid in fourth grade, and that had sucked until I became friends with Dana. I should probably try and be nice to him, especially since he sits next to me for the rest of the year, and because our lockers are next to each other. 

Besides, he likes Caleb Cleveland novels, and I started reading those over summer break (you know, before the world ended), so, that's a start, right? 

____ 

I talked with the new kid between homeroom and second period — it's really weird having to switch classrooms between classes — and asked him which of the Caleb Cleveland books he's read. He gave me this huge smile and said "All of them! Which ones have you read?" 

And I said, "Um, the Curse of the Amulet, and the Lilac Room Light. Wait, you've read all of them?" 

"Yeah!" he said. 

"That's like, fifty-four books. Wow," I said. "Cool." 

He sort of shrugged and said that he used to have a lot of free time, and that "My parents left me alone a lot, you know?" 

And I said "Uh, I guess," because I wasn't sure how to answer that. "I mean, my dad didn't exist as a concept until last summer, cause he died in the Relic Wars." 

And he said "Oh. Yeah, it's kind of like that." 

I felt really weird telling him about my dad, but he's the one who made it personal first. Then I asked him what class he had next, and he said he had Honors Magecraft, which I'm pretty sure is an eighth-grade class? But I didn't call him on it. I just told him I had Divinity Studies, and he asked me if I wanted to be a cleric, and I said maybe. I like the idea of fixing people. But I'm only eleven, you know? And my mom says I have plenty of time to decide if I want to dedicate myself to a god. 

Angus said, "Okay, that's really neat! I know a cleric."

And I said, "Cool." 

And he said, "If you want to borrow any of my Caleb Cleveland novels, just ask me, okay?  I'd be happy to let you borrow them!" 

He's really enthusiastic. 

I said. "Okay, yeah, that'd be cool. Uh, have fun in class."

And he said, 'You too!" 

Then we both went to our lockers (it's really weird having a locker!). He seems nice, but kind of like a nerd. I mean, that's not a bad thing. I might actually ask to borrow his books — the library is always out of copies of the Caleb Cleveland books. It's really annoying. 

____

Things at home are pretty weird right now. My mom and my older sister remembered that my dad existed, and that he's dead, and that's been pretty rough on them, I think? Like, the whole Hunger thing was really bad and really scary, but it's over now and mostly things have been repaired, I think, 'cause it's been like four months since everything happened, and that's definitely enough time. Except for the fact that people are dead. But it's weird because all the adults and some of the teenagers keep remembering things different, and I think they're rewriting some history books which is why Modern Politics as a class at the high school had been canceled — my sister was really annoyed about that, because she needs the credits or something. 

I don't remember my dad. I was one when he died. But it kind of sucks for Mom and for Kitty. I keep running into them talking and then I ask what it's about, and they say either "Don't worry about it, honey," or "None of your business, Nicky." 

And I mean, that's fine or whatever, but you know. It's just been weird. 

____

Angus sat with me and Dana and some of our other friends (Fred and Janine and Kelly) at lunch today. Or, it was more like, I was sitting with Dana at a table and she spotted Angus kind of wandering around looking for a place to sit. She glanced at me and smiled. 

"Is that your new cru-ush?" she whispered to me. "I saw you talking to him earlier." 

"Shut up! I was just trying to be nice," I said, "It sucks being new." 

"Sure," she said, and then yelled across the room "Hey new kid, over here!" Angus turned. She waved at him, and he smiled and started walking over. 

"He's got a name, you know," I said to Dana. She rolled her eyes. "Cru-u-ush," she whispered, but she does this every time I talk to anybody. 

"Hi," Angus said. "Um, can I sit with you?" 

"Sure," I said, and he sat down in the chair next to me. 

"This is Angus," I said to the rest of the table as Angus pulled out his lunch. "He sits next to me and Dana in homeroom, and he's new." 

Everyone said hi, and Angus smiled and said hi back. He started unpacking his lunch and then we were all immediately distracted by how super-nice it was. Like, it was really nice. It was packed in one of those lunch boxes with compartments and dividers and it looked pretty much too nice to eat, and there was a bag of homemade chips. Angus noticed me and Dana staring. 

"Um, my, uh, my dad packed it for me," he said. Which didn't seem to make sense considering he told me he wasn't really close with his parents, but I guess making lunch doesn't mean his dad spends time with him. 

"Are those homemade chips?" I asked. I was really impressed. Chips are like, fried and stuff. I've only eaten homemade chips at restaurants. 

"Yeah," he said. "Do you want some?" 

"Yes please," I said, and he poured a couple of chips into my hand. I ate one. It was like, the best chip I've ever had. 

"My dad told me to magic missile anyone who asked for one," Angus said jokingly. 

"You can cast magic missile?" Fred asked, looking impressed. Angus nodded. "My dad taught me." 

"Nicky's been trying to learn all summer," Kelly said. "She's been stealing her older sister's spellbooks." 

"I can't get anything more than one bolt, though," I said. "And I can't practice when my mom's around so it's going pretty slow." 

"I could show you sometime?" Angus said. 

"That'd be cool," I said. I meant it, really. 

___

I started trying to learn magic missile after the whole apocalypse battle day, you know, what the adults are calling "the day of story and song," when all the black columns attacked everything. We almost died! It was very exciting and pretty scary. Kitty had to kill what was like, a black tiger that sprung out at us even though we were barricaded in a bunker. I'm eleven. I should be able to take care of myself, you know? 

___

I know this was being super rude, but after we were done eating I was really curious, so while we were throwing out plastic sandwich bags and stuff, I asked Angus a question. 

"Hey, I thought you and your parents weren't close? But you keep talking about your dad." 

"You'd be a good detective!" he said, like it was the highest compliment he could think of. "Well, my bio-parents were pretty hands off. But my family is really close! I'm living with them now, which is nice." 

"Cool," I said, even though what he said was like, super vague. I guess I was sort of prying, though. "Your dad seems cool." 

"He's the best," he said, and we walked back to the table, and the rest of lunch period was pretty normal. We mostly just compared classes and schedules and talked about which teachers seemed okay and which didn't. You know, normal school stuff. 

____

I saw Angus for the last time that day when I was getting my stuff out of my locker to go home. His locker is next to mine so it wasn't really a surprise that I saw him. I was pretty tired so I just nodded at him and he nodded at me. He was pulling his backpack out (his backpack is really nice — it looks new. My backpack is new too), and then he closed it and turned to me. 

"Hey Nicky?"

"Yeah," I said, "What's up?"

"Do you want to come over this weekend?" he said, like he was expecting me to say no. "I could show you how to cast magic missile, nobody at home will mind. And you could borrow my books, if you want." 

I blinked. I was really surprised, in a nice way. 

"I'll ask my mom," I said. "That'd be really cool!" 

"Neat," he said, grinning, and I smiled at him. 

Then we walked out of the front doors together, along with everyone else, which is like, a lot of people, and I started heading toward the buses which is what most people do, but Angus started heading toward the sidewalk away from the school and then he stopped. I bumped into him. 

"Oh no," he said, but not like he was actually mad. 

"What is it?" I said, and I looked the way he was looking, and there was like, a whole horde of people standing a little bit away from the school. When they noticed us staring a couple of them waved. It was like, nine people? Maybe? 

And not even all one type of people, there was like a couple of elves and a gnome and a dragonborn and after that I kind of stopped trying to figure everything out. They looked kind of familiar, but I couldn't place it. A lot of other students were also kind of giving them the sideeye, cause it was a lot of adults in one place, and they were loud. 

The tall human guy looked really happy to see Angus, and shouted, "Angus! Over here, buddy!" and then the pretty elf next to him rolled his eyes and said "I'm pretty sure he can see us, dipshit. Agnes! Get your butt over here so that Maggie stops causing a scene," just as loud. 

"Oh no! I told them I could just walk home," Angus said. "They didn't have to come get me." But he was smiling. He glanced at me. "Um, I'll see you later, Nicky! Thanks for being so nice!" 

And he ran off, to the people who I guess were his family? The other elf — the girl one without the huge hat — bent down to give him a hug, and the big guy ruffled his hair. Then they all started walking down the sidewalk, and I started walking over to the bus. 

The new kid's kind of weird, but I think we're going to be friends. I guess I need to ask my mom if I can go over to Angus's house this weekend.


	3. Conversations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> two conversations, two households

I asked my mom if I could go over to a friend's house this weekend when I got home, after I told her and Kitty about my day and middle school and everything. Kitty rolled her eyes because she's done it all before and she said "just wait, Miss Nicolette Min, it's only gonna get worse from here," and Mom said "Kitty!" and Kitty said "Sorry, sorry." Sometimes having an older sister is really super annoying. 

I didn't really want to talk about school after that, so I asked about going to Angus's. Mom asked "Who's the friend? What are his parents names?" And I said "Angus McDonald, and I dunno but I saw them today, I think." 

"You think?" Mom was skeptical. 

"There were like, nine people picking him up," I said. 

"You sure he's not part of a gang?" Kitty said.

"No! Probably not, they were all grown ups and they looked nice, and Angus is too much of a nerd to be in a gang," I said. "He's read all the Caleb Cleveland books and he's in eighth grade honors magic." 

"Geez," Kitty said. I nodded.

"Yeah," I said, and then I described the people who were picking Angus up as well as I could remember, the two pretty elves and the dwarf and the dragonborn and the tall man and everyone else, and it was weird because mom's eyes grew wider and wider as I kept talking, but when I was done she just said, "Tell Angus to ask his parents to call me, and give them our farspeech number." 

"Okay," I said.

Kitty looked concerned and said, "Mom, what's wrong?' 

"Nothing," Mom said, and then she didn't explain anything after that, so we just ate dinner like normal. 

___

The next day, I forgot to ask Angus about asking his parents before class started, so I had to pass him a note because I was afraid I would forget. We sit sort of in the middle of the classroom behind a couple of rows of other kids so I wasn't worried about getting caught. 

"my mom wants your parents to call her about coming over this weekend - nicky," I wrote on a corner of my notebook paper, and then I ripped it into sort of a square. Then I folded the square into a really bad paper airplane. I know exactly one prestidigitation trick, which I learned from Fred, who learned from some older kids.

I held the plane to my mouth and blew on it, and the plane zipped away from my fingers to land precisely in Angus's lap, where Mrs. Sylvester wouldn't see it. Angus startled a bit, but not enough to be noticeable, and I realized that it must have been kind of surprising. But he unfolded the note and read it, and then nodded at me. I nodded back. 

"Nicky, there's no using magic in class!" Mrs. Sylvester's voice floated through the air. "One more strike and you've got lunchtime detention!" I jumped a little, and then some of the other kids laughed — including Dana, the traitor. 

"Yes Mrs. Sylvester," I mumbled, and Angus smiled sympathetically at me and mouthed 'sorry.' I shrugged. 

Of course middle school would have classrooms warded with detect magic. I guess they're used to all sorts of tricks. 

_____

I realized at lunch that I had forgotten to give Angus our farstone number, but I didn't want to tell him it during lunch because then everyone else would ask why I was giving it to him, and then Dana would say even more stuff about me having a crush on Angus. 

It's not a crush! I've known him for two days, and that's way too soon to like anybody, and boys are pretty gross usually anyway. We're gonna be friends, though, I've already decided. 

So after lunch, I stuck a piece of paper with my number in his locker, and hopefully he picks it up. He seems like a guy who would figure that out pretty easy. 

_____

This time, after school, nobody was there to pick Angus up, so we walked together to where the sidewalk splits into the real sidewalk and the bus pickup parking lot, and then he said bye and promised to ask his parents, and I said bye, and okay. 

I waved at him as my bus zipped past where he was walking, and he noticed but by the time he was waving we were already down the street. 

_____

One of Angus's parents (I think it was his mom? I'm not sure, but it sounded like a girl) called after dinner. I was sitting at the kitchen table doing homework — I can't believe we have homework already, it's only been two days since school started — and Mom was washing dishes, so she had to peel off her gloves before racing to the stone and picking it up and saying "Hello?" 

"-s this the Mins, be-" was all I could hear of what the woman on the other end was saying, because I was all the way across the room even though I was eavesdropping really hard. 

"Yes, this is Nicky's mother," Mom said, "is this, um, Angus's mother?" 

The voice on the other end of the phone sort of laughed nervously and said something I couldn't hear, and the "-etia, sor-" and Mom kind of visibly gasped even though she was trying to hide it, I think, so that the other woman wouldn't hear her and said "You're the Direc-!" and the other woman cut her off quickly, kind of, but not in a mean way. And my mom rubbed her eyes with her free hand and said, "Oh that was terribly rude of me, I'm sorry. It's just, well, you know," and the woman said something that sounded like she was agreeing, and they both sort of laughed, and it was a very mom laugh. 

Then my mom said "So, Nicky told me that Angus invited her over this weekend?" and Angus's mom said something that sounded like an agreement, and then some more stuff, and my mom said "Nicky has violin lessons on Sundays, but Saturday afternoon would work for us—" and then she turned to me and said, "Nicky, does Saturday afternoon sound okay with you," and I nodded, so mom turned back to the stone and said, "Saturday works great – maybe around 2:00?" And Angus's mom said something and my mom smiled and said "Great. Thank you for inviting my daughter over, and for, well, you know. Everything," and the other woman sounded a little flustered but pleased, and then my mom said "Good-bye," and hung up. 

By then I had completely given up pretending not to eavesdrop, so I just said "I can go?" and Mom said "Yup, Saturday at two, I'll drop you off and pick you up before dinner," and I said "Cool! Thanks mom," and she smiled at me. 

"Was that Angus's mom?" I asked. 

"Um, yes," she said, as if she wasn't sure. But she was letting me go over, so it had to have been Angus's mom or stepmom or something. 

"What were you talking about with Angus's mom?" I asked, because it was kind of a weird conversation, but after I asked, Mom just said "Grownup stuff," and clammed up. I didn't press it because I didn't want her getting mad and saying I couldn't go to Angus's. I  _ really _ want to learn magic missile. 

Saturday at two! I'm  _ pretty  _ excited. I haven't gone over to anyone's house all summer, because of everything that happened and the reconstruction and mom being weird about dad being dead and stuff, so this is going to be fun. 

It's nice that things are going back to normal. 

 

_ IN ANOTHER HOUSE, ACROSS TOWN _ : 

"So, little man, how was your first day of middle school?" 

"It was really good! All my teachers seem nice, and I think I know pretty much everything they're teaching in Magecraft even though I'm in the eighth grade honors class, and I met a bunch of people and sat with them at lunch, and can I have a friend over this weekend?" 

"You made a friend? Never thought you'd have it in you!" 

"Merle!" 

"I'm kiddin', I'm kidding. Who's the friend?" 

"Her name's Nicky. She's sits next to me in homeroom and she likes Caleb Cleveland novels too." 

"Another nerd, nice" 

" _ Sir. _ "

"Just joshin' ya, D'jango." 

"Kiddo, if you want to have a friend over this weekend, that's fine by us." 

"What Magnus said. First day and you're already making friends, not bad, kid." 

"Well, Barry, you probably never managed that because you're an even bigger nerd than Angus." 

"Lup." 

____

"Oh shit, she wants to talk to Angus's parents. Who are Angus's parents?" 

"We're his parents, I think?"  

"I already have two kids, that's as many as ol' Merle can keep track of." 

"Taako and Magnus are his parents, I think? Who'd we put on his school paperwork? Was it them?"

"I don't remember." 

"Hey, how come I can't be a parent?" 

"'Cause, Lup, if you're his mom and I'm also his dad, that's some fucked up shit right there, m'dude. Incest is  _ not _ wincest." 

"Gross, Taako!"  

"I'm just saying! It's either Lup or me, and I have seniority! He was  _ my  _ apprentice, first!"

"Look, either way, we can't let Taako or Magnus talk to Angus's friend's mom, if you actually want her to say yes."  

"Cap's right. She'll say no in a heartbeat." 

"Barold. Bro. Baby. I am betrayed." 

"Look into my eyes and say I'm wrong, Taako." 

"...Okay fine, make Lucretia do it!" 

"Why me?" 

"'Cause when you're not talking like 'ko you sound like a normal person, most of the time. And that 's more than can be said for the rest of these dipshits. And I hate making phone calls, so it  _ can't  _ be me." 

"She makes a fair point." 

"Yeah. Okay, 'Creesh, you're doing it." 

"I don't suppose I get a say in this?" 

"Nope." 


	4. Mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Permission: granted

The rest of the week was pretty normal — I mean, I guess I mean normal for the beginning of the school year, 'cause at the beginning of the school year everything's always a little bit weird because everyone's getting used to being back. And it's weirder this year because it's a new school with more kids, and because some kids didn't come back from last year, 'cause either they died 'cause of the Hunger or they moved or switched schools. 

They made everyone see a shrink before school began, to make sure nobody was crazy or too sad. I overheard a couple of teachers talking about PTSD, and that sort of thing. 

But school's school. It's just classes and stuff, and that's not really different even though we have to move classrooms and there's more homework. And everyone's friends are sorta getting decided – Angus is definitely part of our group now, along with a couple of other kids from other elementary schools. Dana even stopped teasing me about liking him, but I think she's just waiting for a better opportunity. 

And I joined the magic club, which is meeting next week for the first time! I'm trying to get Angus to join with me, because Dana and Kelly said they didn't want to cause it sounded boring, and we already take magic during school, who wants to do more of it during our free time? 

Which, I get. But Angus is kind of a nerd, and he likes magic, so I think he'd like it. I joined 'cause I want to be better at magic and in class we're still doing  _ prestidigitation  _ and talking about spell safety, and we don't do first-level spells until like,  _ eighth grade _ . Angus says that in eighth grade honors they're gonna do second level spells next quarter maybe, and I'm super jealous. I made him promise to show me how to do some first level spells and he said "Okay, sure, but I'm not great at most of them yet," but Angus has high standards for himself and I bet his not great is perfectly fine. 

I'm going to his house tomorrow, so that's exciting! I'm like, weirdly curious about his parents, 'cause he mentions them a lot. Not a weird amount, but like, more than normal. Like, I never mention my mom unless I have to, but Angus will say something and be like "Oh, my mom/dad/aunt showed me that." And even after the first day, his lunches are always crazy pretty, and they look really tasty, and he admitted that his "T-dad used to have a cooking show," which explained thingd. And he knows all sorts of  _ weird _ stuff — like how to make bombs! and how to carve stuff. And he doesn't know a lot of other  _ normal  _ stuff, like the newest band that everyone's listening to, or like, old cartoons everyone watched when they were a kid, and stuff like that. 

It's not bad, though! Just weird. I should probably ask him where he moved from. 

___

Between sixth and seventh period, both me and Angus were getting some books out of our lockers, so I said hi to him, and he said hi to me, and then kind of shifted around and was like 'Uh, Nicky?" 

and I was like "Yeah?" 

and he was like "Um, you know how I mention my family sometimes? Like I call them dad and mom and stuff?" 

and I was like "Yeah?" cause I didn't know where he was going with this. 

He looked really guilty for a moment, which is dumb, because it's not even like he was really lying and was like "I usually don't call them that, I've just been doing it because I didn't want people to know who they were at school, but you're coming to my house tomorrow so I just wanted you to know that, sorry I lied." 

And I was like "Oh, it's okay," because it's not like I minded that Angus was trying to be normal, everyone at school tries to be normal. "Are they famous?" 

And he was like, "Um. Define famous." 

But then the bell rang and we had to scramble to get to seventh period. Jeez! For a guy who calls himself a detective, he sure leaves a lot of mysteries behind! 

___

After school, we walked out again together, this time with Dana and Fred, and as soon as we walked out the door there was a dragonborn woman waving at us. I didn't know who she was, but Angus waved back excitedly, and ran off with a quick "Bye guys, see you tomorrow Nicky!" 

"Is that a dragonborn?" Fred said, goggling. "Why does Angus know a dragonborn?" 

"Stop being racist, Fred," Dana said. 

"But he's human?" Fred protested. "I'm just saying it's weird." 

"Angus can know whoever he wants," I said, and waved at the two of them. 

Then Dana said, "More importantly, Nicky, you're hanging out with Angus tomorrow?" 

"Yeah," I said, trying to be cool about it. "I'm going over to his place, and he's gonna show me how to cast magic missile." 

Dana grinned, and said, "You li-i-i-ike him," and then I had to hit her in the arm and one of the crossing guards yelled at us for being rowdy. 


	5. Playdate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nicky visits her new friend

So when Angus told me that his family was kind of sort of famous, I was expecting like, I don't know, maybe a TV star or something. I was going to be cool about it! I was going to be all, "Hi Angus's family, I'm Nicky and I'm Angus's friend from school," and I was going to be totally normal and have fun hanging out with Angus even if it turned out to be like, I don't know, Jeff Angel or somebody. I wouldn't ask for an autograph or a photo or anything — although I guess if they had offered, I would have taken it. 

But  _ oh my gods! Ohmygodddddds!!!!  _ I can't even explain to you how important Angus's family is!

Okay, so here's what happened. 

Mom dropped me off at Angus's a bit after two, and wow, his house was  _ huge! _ Like, it was a  _ mansion! _ It looked like there were like, four garages and I was pretty nervous then, actually, cause me and Kitty and Mom just live in an apartment, nothing like this. But Mom didn't seem surprised at all, that Angus had such a big house, she just parked the car in the driveway and said "I'll walk you to the front door," and so we walked up to the front door. 

I was carrying a bag with some fruit that my mom was making me give to them, my mom is  _ so weird  _ about this sort of thing. She says if you visit someone, you have to give them a gift. But anyway, my mom rang the doorbell, and we heard this like, thundering chime, and then the door opened. 

And then.  _ Madame Director  _ of the  _ Bureau of Balance _ was standing there. 

"Hi, this is for you!" I said, all at once, holding out the bag cause I had been like,  _ conditioned  _ into saying that, and I couldn't say anything else because this was  _ Lucretia _ , this was  _ Madame Director, _ this is the woman who led the Bureau of Balance and was part of the Starblaster mission and she helped save so many worlds even though she betrayed her friends and she was standing right in front of me wearing like,  _ mom jeans _ and a t-shirt that said SIZZLE IT UP WITH TAAKO & LUP! WORLD TOUR. 

"Oh, thank you," she said, and took the bag from me, and smiled at me and my mom and said, "Won't you come in? Angus is, uh, pretty excited to have you—" and then Angus came running down the stairs and said "Nicky! Hi!" and then he turned to Lucretia and said, "Ma'am, I told you I wanted to open the door!" 

"Well, you weren't coming down," she said in a very reasonable tone of voice, like, that annoying one that parents use to justify their decisions, and it was so much like conversations that I have with  _ my  _ mom, and it was so weird that Angus was having this conversation with one of the saviors of the known multiverse. 

"That's cause Taako superglued my door shut," Angus explained. And then I realized that it wasn't just Lucretia who lived here, it was probably like, the whole crew. "Again?" Lucretia sighed, and said "Okay, I'll talk to him.  _ Taako!"  _ she turned and yelled. And then a voice yelled back "Whaddaya want, Luce?! I'm in the middle of something!" and then  _ Taako, from TV  _ peeked his head out from another room and waved at us and said, "Oh shit, you must be D'jango's friend. He wasn't makin' you up after all!" before disappearing again. 

Then Lucretia turned back to us and said, "Sorry, just one moment, it's so nice to meet both of you" with an embarrassed smile. And then she started walking over to where Taako had been, saying "You can't keep supergluing Angus's door, Taako!" 

I just want to emphasize that me and my mom were still like, standing in front of Angus's open doorway, and I was still in shock about Angus's family. But Angus looked kind of nervous, and said "Hey, Nicky. Uh, surprise?" and he looked like maybe I would be mad at him, so I smiled and said "Hi Angus, um,  _ yeah _ this is a surprise," and my mom laughed, and I realized that she hadn't been surprised at all. I squinted at her. 

"How come  _ you  _ knew about it?" 

"I talked with Lucretia on the phone, honey," my mom said. 

"Oh," I said. "Right."

"I'll be back around six," my mom said. "You kids have fun, and Nicky, don't be too much trouble." 

"She can stay for dinner, ma'am," Angus said. He's always super formal with adults. "Please? It's no trouble." 

"Yeah, please?" I said. 

My mom frowned and said "I should talk to one of your guardians about this," to Angus, and he smiled and said "They won't mind, really, I promise! I already asked them!" 

And my mom sighed and said, "Well, okay. I'll be back around nine, then. Have fun, you guys. Love you, Nicks," and she dropped a kiss on my head and gave me a hug and I made a face and hugged her back. 

Then she left. And Angus said, "Oh, come in, Nicky," so I stepped into Angus's house and asked, "Why'd Taako superglue your door shut?" 

Angus shrugged. "He says I need to practice my transmutation, but, uh, I think he just likes messing with me." 

"He makes all your lunches, right?" 

"Mmhmm, him or Lup." 

"Cool," I said, because I didn't want to be weird about the fact that two of the best mages-slash-chefs were making Angus's school lunches, even though that was completely insane. 

"Do you want to see my room?" Angus said. 

"Sure," I said, and then we went upstairs. 

_____ 

So the weirdest and really the only good part about the apocalypse was getting the story about the Hunger and the Starblaster crew broadcast into my brain. Like it wasn't any freakier than anything else that had happened that day, and it was actually, I don't know, it was really good and cool and kind of inspiring to hear that people had been fighting the Hunger for so long and that we had a chance at winning. And that was something I kind of needed to hear because I don't know, Kitty had just killed this like, huge black tiger and I was covered in someone else's blood at that point and Kitty had a huge gash in her stomach and was babbling about our dad and I thought she was going crazy, and we didn't know where my mom was, so, I don't know. It was good to hear about someone else fighting and maybe that we could win. 

And I mean, overnight, everyone knew about the Starblaster mission, and also that aliens existed and were pretty cool and a lot like us, and after everything was over, me and my friends talked a lot about if people from other planes count as aliens. I think they do. So technically, Angus is living with a bunch of aliens, which is really neat and a little bit weird if you think about it too much. 

But so, the Starblaster crew is like,  _ beyond  _ famous, and like, nobody is  _ mad  _ at them for it, you know, in the way sometimes people usually are toward celebrities that they don't like. Everyone loves them. 

And after the whole Hunger thing, well, mostly they didn't use their fame that much I think? I don't know, I'm not really keeping track, although there was this big magazine article interview that everyone was looking at, and mom made me and Kitty read it because "this is history, girls" and that was pretty neat. Oh yeah, and Sizzle it Up with Taako and Lup! was on tour just before school started, and I was super jealous of Fred and Janine, who both got to see it and said it was amazing. Jokes on them. And I think Lucretia's building a library, cause they talk about that on the news a lot, and my mom likes keeping the news on while she's making dinner. 

I guess it makes sense that they're living together, cause like, they're a family. But I really really really want to know, how did Angus end up living with them? 

_____ 

So that was the first thing I asked when I went up to Angus's room. Angus's room is pretty neat. He's got a lot of bookshelves and a really nice desk, and his duvet cover has a bunch of constellations on them. 

"Do you want to see something cool?" he asked, when I walked in. 

"Okay," I said, and he turned off the lights, and then the ceiling turned into this super-neat starry sky illusion, like, the type of really high tech fancy thing you see at space museums with like, a voiceover and lots of booming classical music. 

"Woah!" I said. "That's so cool!" 

"Davenport did it for me," Angus said, grinning. "Isn't it great?" 

"It's super cool," I assured him, still looking up. "Hey, how'd you end up living with the Starblaster crew, anyway?" 

"Oh, uh, it's kind of a long story," he said. 

"You don't have to tell me if you don't wanna," I said, realizing that maybe the reason he's living with like, people who aren't related to him, is kind of shitty, and he talks about his bio-parents not being great, so maybe I was like, being super rude to ask him. 

"No, I just mean it's actually a long story!" Angus laughed, and sat on the bed. "Like, um, I guess the short version is I met Magnus, Merle, and Taako on a train?" 

"On a train?" I repeated, and I sat down next to him and laid down to look at the stars better.

"Yeah, and then I ended up working for Lucretia at the Bureau of Balance." 

"But you're a kid," I said. 

"I'm the best detective in the world," he said. "Er, well, best boy detective." 

"Sure," I said, although I wasn't sure I believed him. But I guess you have to be really smart to work for the Bureau, and Angus is really smart. 

"And then after everything was over, Magnus asked if I wanted to move in with them, and I said yes." 

"That wasn't that long," I said. "Thanks for telling me!" 

"You're welcome," he said. "That's the first time I've told anyone about it." 

"Wow," I said, and I kind of thought about what my life would be like if I wasn't living with Mom and Kitty, and we lay there staring at the fake stars for a couple of minutes before Angus said, "I can show you how to cast magic missile now, if you want?"

"Yeah!" I said. And Angus got up, and I got up. 

"Okay, let me just go grab an extra wand," Angus said. "Meet me in the kitchen! That's where the door to the back yard is," and he ran out.

_____

When I walked into the kitchen there was like, this huge magical set of thingies set up on the counter, and Taako Taaco was standing over it. I kind of froze, cause like, it looked really freaky and also holy shit,  _ Taako!  _

"Oh hey, Ango's friend," Taako said, but he didn't turn away from the thing he was doing, which was glowing and parts of it were steaming ominously.  "Whasyourname, again?" 

"Nicky," I said. "Um. What are you doing?" 

"Tryin' ta create a better philosopher's stone," he said, and that sounded pretty impressive to me. 

"Cool," I said, and then I kind of just stood there watching what he was doing, 'cause I was pretty intimidated, and eventually he glanced at me. 

"What's the kid like, at school? Still a huge dork?" and it was actually kind of funny, that this was one of the saviors of the world, and he was trying to grill me about Angus's school life. 

"He's cool," I said, because you gotta stay loyal to your friends, especially against their parents. "He's joining the magic club with me." 

"Hells yeah," Taako said. "That's m'boy." 

"Angus talks 'bout you a lot," I said, cause I liked Taako and also he saved the universe so I think he deserves to know things, even if I've realized that he's kinda a jerk to Angus sometimes. "He's like, always mentioning his dad, and I guess he means you cause it's usually like, about magic and stuff." 

"Angie actually calls me his dad?" Taako said, and he actually sounded really surprised. He looked up from his experiment. "Hachi-machi,  _ really?"  _

"Yeah," I said, cause I was surprised that he was surprised "Pretty sure he calls you and Magnus his dads, from the way he says it." 

"Fuckin' a," he said. 

"Did you just say  _ fuck?"  _ Parents  _ never  _ curse, or at least my mom doesn't, and none of my other friends parents' do. I guess I shouldn't be surprised because it's  _ Taako, from TV, the guy who helped save reality,  _ but it was still really surprising. 

"Fuck yeah I did," Taako said. "Shit, the kid calls me dad, huh?" And I wanted to say he was being repetitive, but that would have been rude, and then Angus came downstairs carrying a wand on a lanyard and a second wand covered in little sparkly flame stickers. 

"Lup let me borrow her spare wand," he said. "We can go out back and I can show you how to cast magic missile?" 

Then Taako snapped his fingers and a mage hand snagged Angus by the collar and dragged him over to where Taako was sitting. 

"Hey!" Angus said. 

"Wait one moment, hotshot," Taako said, "You're showing her magic missile?" 

"Yessir," Angus said. 

"Nuh-uh," Taako said. "Nope, not happenin'." 

"You taught it to me, like, last month!"  

"Yeah m'dude, and I'm the best transmutation mage in literally multiple realities," Taako said. "You're eleven, and teachin' another eleven year old. I ain't riskin' no lawsuit, bubelah." 

"I'm gonna be twelve, soon." 

"What's Lulu doing?" 

"Um, reading a book, I think?" 

"C'mon," Taako said, and then snapped his fingers again and all the weird magical stuff on the table froze and stopped steaming, and he walked over to the staircase, and we followed him. At the foot of the stairs he yelled, "Hey Lup!" and then a voice yelled back, "What'd you fuck up, Taako?" and he yelled, "Nothing, fuck you! Hey, come down here and show the kids how to cast magic missile, Ango's friend wants to learn how to do it!" And Lup yelled back, "Sure!" and then a couple seconds passed, a door slammed, and Lup Taaco came clattering down the stairs. 

"Sup, mini-nerds," she said, but in like, a nice way. "Let's go out back." 

___

Lup took us through the kitchen (Where Taako started working on his weird magic thing again), and out the back door, and the yard was like, weirdly large. Like, the size of an actual field.  

"Your yard doesn't look this big from outside?" I asked Angus, and he said "Oh, it's a variant of Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion," and Lup said "Yeah, me and Barry set it up when we moved here, cause Magnus wanted a dog." 

I have no idea what Morde-whats' mansion is, and it sounded pretty neat, but not as neat as a  _ dog. _

'You have a dog? I asked. 

"Not yet," Angus shrugged. "But soon!" 

Lup rolled her eyes. "Yeah, now Mango wants  _ two _ dogs." 

"You gotta let me come play with it when you one, okay?" I said. 

"Of course!" Angus said, and by then we were pretty far into the field and Lup (and I can't believe I was getting taught magic by Lup Taaco!) said, "Aight, baby nerds, wands out, time to get schooled." 

And the lesson was really weird, but like, not bad weird? Like you could tell that Lup isn't like, Dr. Wellsey who teaches 6th and 7th grade magecraft. But it was good weird! And it was the first time I've seen Angus cast magic — cause it's super not allowed to do outside of class — and like, wow. He's really good. Like, crazy good, like I totally believe that he's taking eighth grade honors classes now. Lup had him casting fireball, and then she started teaching him grand fireball, and that was like,  _ crazy.  _

And now I can cast magic missile with two bolts! Which Lup says is pretty advanced for my age, and that I shouldn't worry about keepin' up with Angus cause he has a year on me, for learning. 

"Though if you want any magic schoolin' you better come ask me again, kiddo," Lup said.  "Real school's more interested in makin' sure they don't get sued than actually teaching you anything cool." 

And I said "Okay!" but I was too intimidated to ask if she meant that I could ask her again, not because she was scary, but because she's  _ Lup Taaco.  _

But maybe I'll ask Angus to ask her. 

___ 

So, after doing magic, we went upstairs to Angus's room again, and then we just kind of hung out, like we had planned to. Angus gave me a couple of books and told me that I could return them "whenever," and I said "Okay, thanks." And we talked about our other friends, and the new Caleb Cleveland TV show that's coming out next spring and whether we thought it was going to be any good or not. Angus thinks it's probably not going to be as good, but I think it's going to be decent. He just thinks they're going to mess up the mystery, but I like 'em more for the stories, you know? 

And we talked about school and teachers and stuff, and how different elementary school was to middle school. I wasn't like, surprised at all to learn that Angus had been out of school for the past couple of years. I didn't know why he came back, you know? He's really smart, he doesn't need to be there. 

When I asked him that, Angus shrugged. 

"I wanted to, I guess." 

"School sucks, though," I said. 

"I like having friends," Angus said, and I guess that made sense, because it's really hard to hang out with people when you don't see them like, every day, and I guess if he was just getting tutored then it would be really hard for him to meet like, other middle schoolers, and I never would have met him. So I'm glad he came to school, and I told him that. 

"I'm glad you came to our school," I said. 

"Thanks!" Angus said, and he looked like, actually really happy I said that, and it was nice. "I'm glad I met you guys," he said. 

"Yeah," I said, and I was kind of thinking about how crazy Angus's life has been, because he's done so much more stuff than I have, like, his life is so not normal that he was happy to go to middle school, and then I thought it was maybe a little bit sad, cause it didn't seem like he had much time to make friends. But also, he got to help save the world, and now he's got a really big family so I think maybe it worked out okay for him. And then I had a thought. 

"Wait," I said. "Is the Starblaster in your garage?" 

"Yeah," Angus said. "Do you want to see it?" 

Did I want to see it, he asked.  _ Did I want to see a spaceship?!  _

"Yes!" 

____

Angus's garage looked pretty much like every other garage, except really big, and instead of bikes or carts or something, the whole space of the garage was taken up by a gleaming silver spaceship, with an engine that glowed softly. 

The Starblaster was  _ hands down _ the coolest thing I've ever seen in my entire life.  

It was like, it was like something out of TV! It was all gleaming silver and chrome and it looked exactly like it had in the broadcast, except better polished, and the door was open on the deck. 

"Can we go inside?" I asked Angus. 

"Sure," he said, and he climbed up the little ladder to the deck and I followed him. 

The deck was pretty cool, it just had a little half-cockpit thing with a steering wheel and some buttons, and near the back there was a door that led into the ship. I remembered it from the broadcast. Angus led me inside, and I was probably being pretty annoying cause I kept stopping to look at stuff, because it was the first time I'd ever been on a spaceship, and probably going to be the  _ only  _ time I was on a spaceship, unless I was invited back to Angus's. 

"This is so cool," I said to Angus. He grinned. 

"I know! Isn't it great?" He paused. "Wanna see the engine room? That's where all the cool spaceship parts are." 

"Yeah!" 

 

And he lead me down a couple of corridors and a couple ladders, and by then all the floor and the walls and ceiling were all metal and it was pretty spooky, and then we heard a voice, saying "Hello?" and I jumped. But Angus didn't. He just called down the corridor, "Hello sir! I'm just showing my friend around the Starblaster!" 

"Kiddo, I thought I told you to stop calling me sir," the voice called, and then a figure emerged from around a corner and it was  _ Barry Bluejeans,  _ and I guess by now I should have stopped being surprised by every hero I saw but it was really really cool, still. Bluejeans is kind of a stupid name, though, not that I'm ever going to say that out loud. 

"Sorry, Barry," Angus said. 

"No worries," he said, in like a friendly tone of voice, and then he looked at me and said, "Oh, Nicky, right? Angus's friend from school." And he held out his hand to shake mine like I was a grown up or something, which was cool. 

And I said "Nice to meet you!" and I shook his hand. 

"Nice to meet you too," he said. "Me and Cap are just doing some repairs, nothing too interesting, don't let us detain you." 

"Are you heading out again?" Angus asked. 

"Not for a couple of weeks," Barry said, shaking his head. And then I asked, "Heading out?" 

And Barry turned to me and said, "We've been using the Starblaster to bring aid and supplies to places that need it, you know, after the Hunger's attack. Pretty much winding down, though." 

And I said, "Wow," because that's really, that's like a really good person thing to do. "That's really cool." 

Barry shrugged. "Just doin' our jobs. Actually, hey, if the two of you want the grand tour, I can grab Cap?" 

"Aren't you busy?" Angus asked. "I don't want to bother him, if you're busy." 

"I can finish things up by myself, Angus," Barry said, smiling. "Besides, Cap used to love showing people around the ship. It's like his baby." 

And I said, "Okay!" before Angus could protest more, and that's how we ended up getting a tour of the Starblaster from Captain Davenport. 

It was. So. Freaking. Cool. Spaceships are like, the best thing ever, and it's so cool that they're even real, now, cause until this summer it was like, a fairytale story type thing, you know? And Captain Davenport showed us around all the rooms (except like, people's bedrooms and stuff), and he was really cool about it and seemed really excited, actually, that I was so into it, and Angus also seemed to really enjoy it even though he's been inside the ship before. 

He said to me later that he hadn't ever had the tour, cause when he was on the ship the first time things had been pretty crazy. And we learned a bunch about the world that the crew had come from, and it was so weird! They had two suns! Angus tried to figure out the math of it, and the Captain had laughed, and told him to ask Taako, because Taako was the one who was good at math. And then Angus said "I thought Taako didn't know any math?" and Cap rolled his eyes and said "Taako refuses to learn Faerunian mathematics, on principle. He's pretty good at our world's calculus and algebra, though." 

And eventually we came back to the engine room, where Barry was tinkering with a thing, and when he saw us, he looked up. 

"Have fun?" he said, and me and Angus nodded and I nodded. Barry smiled. "Great." And Captain Davenport said that he had a good time too. 

Then Barry asked, "hey, what time is it?" I looked at my watch. 

"Like, sevenish?" 

"Hm, probably gonna be dinner, soon," he said. "C'mon, lets go back inside." 

And then everyone left the spaceship, but that was okay, cause I was getting pretty hungry by then. 

____ 

Dinner was really interesting. It's always weird eating dinner at other people's houses, right? Cause you never know what everyone else eats, and you have to talk with your friends parents or maybe their little siblings, and it's really weird seeing your friend act like how they act at home, which is different than how they act at school. 

So, dinner at Angus's house was spaghetti and meatballs, and also salad and garlic bread, like, really good garlic bread. Actually everything was really good, which wasn't like, surprising, cause Lup and Taako were making dinner when we came in from the garage, and Taako said "Wash your hands, you grease monkeys, and help us with dinner." So we did, and it was kind of fun. I help out with dinner a lot at home, but we never use magic, and here Lup and Taako use it like spellslots aren't something they have to worry about. Like, Lup used a bunch of fire spells to cook things, and Taako kept turning stuff into other stuff, and I guess I stared a little bit because they started kind of, making a show out of it, and it was just really really cool. 

And then we sat down for dinner, and this was after Taako shouted with a magically projected voice, "HEY GUYS DINNERS READY, COME DOWN, M'DUDES, OR ELSE IT'LL BE GONEZO," which was like, a weird and kind of rude way to tell people to come down to dinner, but I guess it worked cause people came down. 

So, at the (really big) table was me, Angus, Lup, Taako, Magnus, Merle, Davenport, Lucretia, and Barry, except not in that order cause I forget what order people were sitting in. I actually feel really weird calling them by their first names, but it's even weirder saying like, Mr. Burnsides, cause these are like,  _ heroes _ , not just anyone's parents, or something. It's like, crazy that I had dinner with them.

But anyway, we sat down for dinner and it was actually really nice? Like, I don't know, it was just like eating dinner with anyone else's big family, and they asked me questions about school and my life, you know how parents and stuff are. I guess they were curious about who Angus was hanging out with. 

"So, how did you guys become friends, Nicky?" Magnus asked, and I swallowed the bite I was chewing and said "Oh, we sit next to each other in homeroom," and Angus added that "we like the same books, and our lockers are next to each other too!" 

And Taako rolled his eyes and said, "Assigned seating, jeezy creezy, school is crazy." 

And I said, "You didn't go to school?" cause I thought you like, had to go to school, you know, even just for a little bit, unless you already had a job, and Taako winked at me and said, "School of life, baby," and Lucretia rolled her eyes and said "Please don't listen to Taako," and then Lup cut in and said, "I mean, if you wanna be a wizard, though," and then I said, "Actually, I kind of want to be a cleric?" And Angus nodded to back me up.  

 

When I said cleric, then, Merle sort of leaned forward and perked up and said, "you looking for a god then, lil' miss?" 

And I said, "My mom says that I can think about that when I'm older," and he nodded and said, "Sure, sure, but in case you're ever wondering..." and he passed me like, a really badly folded pamphlet, "think about Pan, okay?" and I said "Okay?" and Magnus said, "Stop trying to convert Angus's friend!" 

So that's pretty much what all of dinner was like. I guess the only other weird thing was when the grown-ups kind of ended up talking about what happened last summer, and they asked me about my experience, if I wanted to talk, cause they were curious about what it had been like on the ground. And then Angus said "hey, don't ask her about that!" cause he kind of knows about my nonexistent now existent dad, and how weird things were, and they said sorry, and I said it was okay, and then I was really awkward about it for a moment. 

"Um, also, thank you for saving the world," I said, "Cause, it woulda been pretty bad if you...hadn't..." I kind of trailed off at the end, cause I realized that maybe that was a stupid thing to say. But Merle laughed, and said, "Yeah, no shit it woulda been bad!" so it was okay, I guess, and I was glad I said it.

Anyway, I guess what I'm mostly saying is that it's really weird to have dinner with the heroes of reality who happen to be your new friend's family, but it's not like, bad. 

____

I guess the thing is, you always expect heroes to be like, larger than life, you know? You don't expect them to like, adopt a kid and live in a house and eat dinner together, but like, I think it's nicer that way. I think it's nice that Madame Director can wear mom jeans and mom her kid, and that Taako and Lup can make dinner and heckle everyone into helping, and Magnus can ask his their kid about his friends, you know? I guess it's nice to know that heroes can go home again, or like, make home, or something like that. 

Cause like, I dunno, if I saved the world, I would want to go home and hug my mom and Kitty and have Mom take me out to ice cream at the place down the street with the crunchy cookie bits, and I guess that’s pretty boring but that’s what I would want. And I’d want to go to the park with Dana and Fred and everybody else and sit at the top of the playground and read comic books with them. 

And I think it's nice that Angus has a family, cause like, i dunno. I've always wanted a big family, but you know, you get what you get, usually, and I'm glad that Angus got a really nice family, and that I got to meet him at school. 

Wow! That's pretty sappy, isn't it? 

____ 

After dinner, me and Angus just hung out in the living room and played some fantasy video games, and I pretty much beat Angus at all of them, because Angus doesn't really play — apparently it's mostly Lup, Taako, and Magnus who really use the system, although Lucretia always beats everyone — and I play like, all the time against my sister. So that was pretty entertaining, or at least kind of funny, and I showed Angus some of the better tricks I know, and he got a lot better. He started winning toward the end, which was nice cause it was cool that the tricks I showed him worked, but annoying cause he was winning against  _ me.  _

And then my mom called, so we had to stop playing games and say goodbye instead. I kinda wanted to stay longer, and I think Angus wanted me to stay longer too, and I sort of wished we had negotiated for a sleepover, but I don't think it would have happened.

Angus walked me to the front door. 

"Thanks for coming, Nicky," Angus said. 

"I had a lotta fun," I told him, and I meant it. "You should come over sometime, my house isn't as cool as yours, but we could hang out." I meant that, too, and I didn't want him to think that I had only liked coming over cause I got to meet his famous family. Because I came over cause I liked Angus, to begin with, and I still like him. 

"That'd be neat!" he said and smiled at me, and I grinned at him. Then I gave him a hug, to say goodbye, and he hugged me back, and I said "Seeya at school, Angus," and he said "See you Monday," and I let go, and waved, and then I walked outside. 

And then I ran down the driveway to where my mom was waiting for me. I have so much to tell her, and I need to ask if Angus can come over sometime! 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its no longer canon, sorta, but, fuckit! thanks for reading! <3

**Author's Note:**

> im @[anonymousalchemist](http://anonymousalchemist.tumblr.com/)  
>  liner notes [here!](http://anonymousalchemist.tumblr.com/post/164367788322/liner-notes-re-the-new-kid)


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